Prague…in One Day

We arrived in Prague Friday afternoon via train. We then had to take the subway to the next stop. Our hotel was not too far from the subway stop. It’s a beautiful hotel!

We quickly checked in then boarded a bus to the zoo. Prague’s zoo is considered one of the top ten in the world. It is easy to see why. They have signs posted for when they are going to feed the animals so you can see them up close. We got to see the gorilla feeding time. Also, their enclosures are huge compared to most others we have seen, and include real grass and trees!

This girl was pretty smart! She loaded a bunch of branches (pretty sure they were cherry tree branches with a few cherries still attached) onto her back and then went back outside and found a quiet spot to eat her leaves and cherries in peace.

After the zoo we went to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. After dinner we walked around the town square. They have such beautiful buildings here. We got to see the astrological clock in action as well at 8:00 pm.

After that we walked back to our hotel room, after finding two Geocaches along the way. The next morning we took another train out to Kutná Hora to go see the Bone Church. I certainly hope they used dead people’s bones and didn’t kill people because they needed more bones. It was fascinating to look at–both beautiful and creepy. Here are several pictures.

It was about an hour train ride there and an hour back. You know, it’s exhausting being on the road 24/7. So after we got back to Prague, we got McDonald’s happy meals, ate, and then took a nice long nap! And then of course once we woke up it was dinner time! We decided we couldn’t leave Prague without eating local favorite food. That turned out to be fried cheese and goulash. The fried cheese was a slab of cheese breaded and pan fried…think giant grilled cheese sandwich. The goulash was more like stewed meat, but good.

Of course I had to visit the bathroom (seriously when do I not 😞) and what should I find but a little glass full of toothpicks! What a great idea! How often have you checked out your teeth when using the bathroom at a restaurant? And to have toothpicks there to help you out?!? Genius!

By this time we decided to call it a night, so we stopped for ice cream and meandered back to the room. Tomorrow sees us on another train trip, this time to Vienna, Austria. And the adventure continues!!!

Hugs,

Ronney

A Little More Berlin

Thursday started out rainy, windy, and cloudy–the perfect type of weather to do laundry! We took the tram to the laundromat. Looks just like they do inAmerica!

We were smarter today in that we rode the tram to get here instead of walking. So much better with a big bag of laundry each! After we returned to the hotel room and dropped our laundry, we headed over to the Altes (old) Museum. This one was filled with Greek treasures.

It was lunch time by now, and we had already decided that we HAD to try Schnitzel (breaded meat) and Spatzel (noodles) before we left Germany. Using our trusty Apple map, we found a little hole in the wall place near the museum that had great reviews. Final consensus–kind of bland (both things) but not bad.

We had great plans for the day after that but it was so hot and muggy by the time we finished we went back to the room to rest (sound like old farts, don’t we?!?) But the humidity and being on the road for a week and half is taking its toll!

For dinner we chose Italian. The pizza was fantastic. The crust was super thin and crispy, just the way I like it!

After dinner we continued in with our Geocaching. We found another one not too far from the restaurant. So far we are 5 for 5! We have not come across one with anything inside (other than a log), but I am ready if I do! It’s on our list of things to do in Prague as well. There are a TON there!

On a sad note 😞, my beautiful fuchsia suitcase suffered a mortal injury and could no longer continue on the journey. I did however find a new companion, and while he is not fuchsia, he is definitely my style. Meet my new friend!

It is Friday morning and we are sitting at the Berlin Central Station waiting for our train to Prague. More to come later!

Hugs,

Ronney

It’s Been a Few Days…

Where to begin? Berlin is a BIG little city. Like New York City on a much smaller scale. The city is dirty and covered in graffiti, but still it holds some charm. Transportation here works like all major cities…trains, buses and trams will get you everywhere you need to go quickly and efficiently!

Jim loves to visit the zoos of all the places we visit. Berlin was no different. He is infatuated with gorillas. I am too but they sort of creep me out. Mostly because of how human they appear, both physically and behaviorally. They weren’t cooperating for pictures. Jim with the statue will have to do!

After that we hopped back on a tram and went to the Hard Rock Cafe. My mission is to eat something different at each Hard Rock Cafe I go to on this trip! Actually, that is kind of his this trip has gone with food in general. This time I ordered a chicken club sandwich. Yum!

Jim’s eyes were bigger than his stomach, but when you have a craving you have to go for it!

From here we visited a local quilt shop where I again was able to find some black and white fabrics that I didn’t already have. The shop was filled with all kinds of craft things, not just fabric.

From here we went to the hotel room, gathered up all of my new fabrics, my Starbucks mugs and my new Hard Rock Cafe sweatshirt and Jim and I made our way to the mailing place. $100 later!!! my items were winging their way to America!

Our hotel is just outside the main downtown area–maybe half a mile or so. The next day we rode the tram to Museum Island and went to the Neues (New) Museum. They had a large collection of Egyptian artifacts. I could have spent all day staring at all the wonderful things on display.

One thing I learned is that all mummies are buried in three different sarcophagi–the inner most one most closely resembled the human, then the next one protected that first one, and then the final one was usually made of stone and was much larger.

After the museum we rode a different tram to see Checkpoint Charlie. I don’t really know much about this but Jim wanted to see it. I guess it is where there was a standoff between US soldiers and Russian occurred, where East and West Berlin met.

Lunch that day was really good. The sign outside said pizza, but we ended up ordering something else. I don’t know what it was, but it was good! Meat of some kind cooked on a giant skewer and then shaved off. Delicious!

We hunted down a protein shop, bought some bars and a couple of protein shakes before heading back to the room. Later than night we hunted out a Chinese restaurant. Their food was so good, just like home. One the way back we ran across a street artist. Oh, to be so talented!

Today our adventure included a trip to Potsdam. Nearby is Albert Einstein’s summer house, but you couldn’t get a good view of it because of all the vegetation around it. So we went back into downtown Potsdam. It is known for all of its beautiful palaces/summer homes.

After that we ate lunch. It was so hot and muggy out that we decided to head back to our hotel, where we both quickly conked out for a couple of hours. When we woke up, we searched out three different Geocache locations near us. We found them all and signed the logs. Next we’re went to dinner at the Block House steakhouse. It was pretty good–very much like an American steakhouse.

We even sat outside. We got to see trams go by, a fender bender, sidewalk musicians! Buy this time it was 8:30 pm and time to end the day. On a side note…my pedometer says we walked 17,852 steps yesterday, the most so far! It’s no surprise we were so tired!

Hugs,

Ronney

Goodbye Amsterdam, Hello Berlin!

Today we were up early to get to Centraal Station to catch the train to Berlin. The sun sets after 10:00 pm so of course I am not tired when I should be going to sleep! The ride to Centraal Station and then Berlin were pretty uneventful, but here are a few things we saw and enjoyed while in Amsterdam.

Our hotel in Berlin is just up the street from the train/tram station so it was an easy walk. First impression…it’s kind of a dirty city, with graffiti everywhere! And all of the sidewalks are cobblestone, which looks nice but isn’t really when you are lugging your suitcase and backpack down the sidewalk.

But we got there about 4:00 pm. It’s a pretty nice hotel. Much better than the one in Amsterdam! Once we were checked in we gathered up all of our dirty laundry and wandered off to find a laundry mat. We found one fairly close by. They have a little cafe inside, so Jim and I were able to enjoy a Diet Coke and relax while waiting for our laundry to be done. Easy peasy!

After that we dropped our clean laundry back at our room and continued on down the street to the Hofbräu München Wirsthaus restaurant. They had live music! And it was a lively place! The food was pretty good too!

I ordered roast beef and fried potatoes. The potatoes were delicious! Jim ordered meatloaf. What came didn’t look or taste like meat loaf…it was much more like thick cut bologna. See for yourself!

We decided to treat ourselves to ice cream afterwards. It was quite good. A little different that American ice cream. Richer, with stronger flavors.

By this time it was going on 9:00 pm and we had walked over 10,000 steps, even after a six and a half hours train ride. We are going to call it a night and come up with a plan of attack for what to do tomorrow!

Hugs,

Ronney

A Lazy Day in Amsterdam

The day started out windy and rainy. We knew that so our plan for today was to hang out in the room until noon or so, as the rain and wind were supposed to be gone by then. It was! Today’s breakfast was a repeat of yesterday’s–you can’t beat free!

This gave me a chance to finish my book and to scope out a laundry mat close to our hotel in Berlin for when we get there tomorrow. Success!

Once it cleared up, we ventured out to take a canal cruise around the city. It was a narrated cruise with LOTS of info about the history of the city. Did you know that there are as many bikes in the city as there are people–about 600,000?

There were lots of beautiful old buildings to see. Just about all of them are made from brick. Over the last few hundred years the city has been wiped out due to fires, so it was made a law that buildings had to be made from brick. I love the black and white ones.

Also in the olden days there were no house numbers so people made, or had made, something for the front of their house so that others would know which house was theirs. This house had a sculpture of a red hat as the owners last name translated to “red hat”. Pretty cool, huh?!?

After the canal tour we stopped for pizza. We ordered a cheese pizza. It was pretty tasty, except for the blue cheese they put on it. It was too much, even for Jim, and he likes blue cheese!

Next we decided to walk to the Red Light District. Maybe it’s different at night or maybe I just didn’t know what to look for, but the whole area seemed pretty tame. We did see two girls with pasties on in the window inviting you in to their establishment. But they have signs everywhere stating no pictures of the sex workers. Here are a couple of pics of buildings though!

By this time we had walked a long way and needed to rest. Fortunately we were no too far from their Centraal Station. We walked over there, had some Starbucks, and rested our tired feet! It’s easy to get a perspective on just how many bikes there are outside of Centraal Station!

A short time later we hopped on the tram and returned to our hotel room. Here is the artwork that greets us when we get up every morning. Hilarious!

For dinner we ate at Take a Wok. It’s kind of like Chipotle, but for Asian food. You pick the type of noodles you want, then the meat, veggies and sauce. They cook it all up in a wok and serve it up. It was pretty yummy. Sorry there is no picture of the food. I left my camera back in the room. But here is a view of the restaurant from our room’s window!

We have a long, busy day tomorrow that starts bright and early! We are off to Berlin via train. It’s about a six hour ride. Plenty of time to nap and read! So we are calling it an early night as we have to be up and moving by 5:45 am!

Hugs,

Ronney

Busy Day in Amsterdam

I woke up about 4:00 am this morning. My sleeping patterns are all out of whack! But after an hour or so I was able to fall back asleep until 8:00 am. The hotel serves breakfast for free. I had toast and jam, cheese and salami, and hot tea with milk and sugar. Delicious!

After breakfast we took off for the day. It was raining some so we decided to go to the quilt store first. I found some black and white prints to add to my collection that I didn’t already have. By the time we were finished here it had stopped raining so we headed over to the zoo. I am not sure what was in that tree stump, but it looked like yogurt and that gorilla was sure loving it, using the stick to get it out to eat. His little friend came along to check it out!

From there we took the tram to the Van Gogh Museum. Our tickets to get in were not until 4:45 pm (it was about 2:00 pm), so we stopped for lunch. I had a club sandwich and fries and so did Jim. I took out the middle piece of bread but it was still delicious!

Next, we made our way across the street to the Van Gogh museum. It was amazing to see so many paintings by one person in one place. We were not allowed to take pictures of anything inside the museum 😞. I did however really enjoy all of his self portraits.

From here we made our way over to the Anne Frank House. This is where she and her family and friends hid out for two years before being captured by the Nazis. They have built a modern museum around the building. Again no photographs. I did get to see her original diary, lots of her writing samples, and the rooms they lived and slept in while in hiding.

By now it was 8:00 pm and our next stop was Sefa restaurant. They served Turkish food. I had a lamb kebab sandwich and Jim had a lamb cheeseburger. The kebab sandwich was delicious!

After dinner we rode the tram back to our hotel. We got ice cream from the grocery store, wolfed it down, then shortly thereafter crashed for the night!

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain in the morning but clear up by noon. We shall see what adventures await us!

Hugs,

Ronney

Amsterdam…here we come!

We got off the ferry at about 8:00 am. From the outside it looks like a giant cruise ship. It was loaded with diesel trucks, cars, bicycle groups, dogs, people, kids, etc..

This dog was even carrying his own bag. I have GOT to train Rosie to do the same thing! How cool would that be if she could carry her own junk!?!

From here we got on a bust that took us to the train station. That was about a half-hour drive. We didn’t have tickets 🙄, and thankfully no one asked us for them. Once we arrived at the train station we bought a three day travel pass, which you can use on the trains and the trams. Some of the trains have silent cars–no talking, no music, etc.. We sat in one of those cars by accident on the first leg of the journey into Amsterdam. The trains are such a lovely way to travel!

We arrived at Central Station and took the trams to our hotel. We definitely need these at home! But here is the entrance to our home for the next few days. Quite the steep entrance! And we are on the fourth floor–each floor’s staircase is just as steep! Should be quite the experience to get our suitcases back down without killing ourselves!

We were not able to check into our hotel yet, so we dropped off our luggage and wandered around. We found the Hard Rock Cafe and had lunch. From there we went to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam museum. They had a few Van Gogh paintings, including another one of his self-portraits.

The museum also had some really cute life-size Play-mobile figures dressed up like the characters from some of the paintings. These were my favorite.

By this time I had quite the headache. Pretty sure by now I was missing a whole night’s sleep. We stopped at Starbucks for a couple of Mocha Frappuccino’s. It helped with the headache but not the being tired. We went back to the hotel, checked in, and then we both promptly took a two hour nap! After that we felt much better.

By now it was about 7:30 pm and time to think about dinner. Jim found a restaurant, Holland’s Hap Hmm Restaurant, a few blocks away for dinner. We shared two plates. I ordered stewed beef and Jim got a meatball. We shared peas and carrots and some sort of cabbage dish. We also got boiled and fried potatoes. All of it was pretty good!

We also ordered dessert…chocolate soufflé and ice cream. It was even better than the dinner!

Our hotel is above a local grocery store. So on the way back to our room we stopped and got water, a couple of protein bars, and some crackers. Here is a picture from our window. It was taken at 9:00 pm!

It was cold, windy, and a little rainy here in Amsterdam today. Here’s hoping for a warmer, brighter tomorrow!

Hugs,

Ronney

We are safely across the pond!

Getting to LAX was no big deal. Getting through the airport to our gate was a breeze for me, but Jim always gets stopped when we go through the checkpoint at the airport. They pat him down, test his skin for drugs, etc.. It must be because he looks like a hardened criminal!

Getting onto the plane, the flight over, and the meals were all uneventful. We landed in London at about 12:00 pm on Wednesday. We saw a few interesting sights while coming in for a landing, one of which Jim said is the Queen’s castle!

There are like a million people on the airplane so it took quite a while to unload. From the airport we rode the Underground to the Holborn Station, and from there we took a train to Manningtree Station. It looks like an old-time railway station. Very cute!

From there we caught another train to the Harwich International port. We should have known that there was NOTHING around, so no food or drink! We only have to sit here and wait three more hours before we can board the ferry. To help pass the time I took full advantage of their luxury sleeping accommodations and took a nap!

Well…it’s 8:30 pm and we have checked in for the ferry to Amsterdam. But again we wait in the loading area to actually get on the ship. Hopefully they have things to eat and drink on the ferry! I am starving!!!

We are on the ferry!!! They are loading well over 100 diesel trucks into the bottom levels of the ferry, but the upper decks look just like a cruise ship. Our room is nice and fairly roomy. After we dropped off our luggage, we headed to the buffet. I had traditional fish, baked beans, and mashed potatoes. Jim get pizza. It was pretty yummy–not sure if that was because it really was yummy or because I was so hungry!

Here is a photo of our cabin. It didn’t come a mess…we made that. Overall, pretty comfy, and the shower was better than Royal Caribbean’s!

I am not sure how long we have been on the go, but I am going to count it as one day. Can’t wait to see what other adventures are out there for us!

Hugs,

Ronney

New Suitcase, New Adventure

Today is the start of our next vacation. Jim and I will be spending the next four weeks traipsing throughout Europe. However…to make travel as easy as possible I agreed to take only a carry on suitcase and my backpack. Two years ago Jim and I were on a different trip through Europe, but our luggage was not. It took Jim’s suitcase four days to find us and eight! I never want to repeat that experience!

So here are my new travel companions!

I should have no problem identifying which suitcase is mine! With the help of packing cubes, I was able to fit into my suitcase five outfits, a dress, a raincoat, a pair of sandals, socks and underwear, a host of electronic goodies and cords, a portable clothesline and laundry detergent sheets and a toiletry bag that is stuffed to the gills! Oh, I almost forgot a foldable tote bag with a luggage sleeve for things I pick up along the way or maybe as a laundry bag???

In my backpack is a pair of flip flops, a spare shirt and underwear, a light jacket, my iPad mini, more cords, wallet, passport, and umbrella.

Today we head to LAX to catch our overnight flight to England. From there our real adventure begins, but more about that tomorrow!

Hugs,

Ronney